University of Phoenix Opens Immersive Nurse Teaching Center

Across the street from its flagship campus, University of Phoenix is opening an “immersive learning center for nursing students. The facility is meant to provide quasi-clinical training through the use of wireless high-fidelity 3G “patient” mannequins that cry, talk, sweat, cough and breathe; and a high-fidelity baby that reacts to stimuli in the same fashion as a real newborn.

The University is introducing the immersive learning tools in its LPN to BSN degree program, with plans to integrate them into other nursing degree programs. The school also intends to open similar centers in Denver, Modesto, California and Honolulu. The cost of building out an immersive nurse training center can run to $400,000.

“What makes University of Phoenix’s immersive learning environment different
is that our nursing students are putting both their clinical and critical thinking skills to work,” said Pam Fuller, dean of the University’s College of Nursing.

Tracy Chesney, the school’s Director of Nursing, agrees that the critical thinking skills are just as important as the clinical skills training for students. She cites research that indicates that more than 72 percent of patient errors that occur in a clinical setting are related to communication and assessment skills rather than their proficiency in physical, task-oriented skills.

UOP’s nursing school provides both a bachelor’s and master’s program in the field, along with the enormously popular RN to BSN degree. They operate eighty campuses across the United States as well as a very successful online education program. Their current enrollment is about 430,000 students.

Because of clinical study requirements, the only fully online degree in the School of Nursing is the RN to BSN option. The immersive training center gives the school an opportunity to mimic clinical study, with the difference that there is an observation gallery where students and instructors can watch other class members use the immersive tools and learn from other’s errors as well as their own.

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